Reel 38

Scope and Contents From the Collection: Consist of correspondence, reports, ledgers, legal documents, leaflets, printed material, photographs, and newspapers published by the union. These document the activities of the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union from its origins through its transformations into the National Farm Labor Union in 1946 and the National Agriculture Workers Union in 1952, and through its merger with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union in 1960. The records also contain selected materials from the Socialist Party...

Scope and Contents The anti-trust suit filed by the Justice Department against the Louisiana Fruit and Vegetable Producers Union finally came to trial on April 28; the papers include the full transcript of the court proceedings (April 28) and a great deal of correspondence from the various lawyers involved in the case . Also running through both months is a spate of correspondence between Galarza and Mitchell on arranging a unified plan of action with the CIO and with a number of Mexican unions in an effort to...

Scope and Contents As Galarza reported to Mitchell, the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA) in California was beginning to undermine the NAWU position by enticing away organizers and union members (May 29, 30; June 3). Both Mitchell and Galarza sent letters of protest to George Meany, charging that UPWA activities in California and Louisiana were in violation of the AFL-CIO No-Raiding Agreement (June 1, 10). There is no written reply from Meany, but see Mitchell's letter to Galarza recounting his...

Scope and Contents The NAWU and the UPWA met twice during the summer to attempt to set up a Joint Organizing Committee of Agricultural and Packinghouse Workers; see the memorandum on the July meeting (July 2), a letter from Mitchell to Meany on the August meeting (Aug. 3), and the drafts of proposals for the joint organizing effort (Aug. 4, 15). There is an interesting exchange between Mitchell and New Orleans lawyer Aubrey B. Hirsch on the Right-to-Work Bill recently passed by the Louisiana legislature and on...

Scope and Contents Negotiations continued with AFL and CIO officials on arranging a joint organizing drive for agricultural workers and on stopping the encroachments of the UPWA on NAWU territory. For a running account of the dispute with UPWA, see the correspondence between Mitchell and Galarza during October and November and the exchange between Mitchell and Meat Cutter's Secretary-Treasurer Patrick Gorman (Oc.t 8, 19). The CIO called a strike at the South Coast Sugar Corporation Sugar Refinery at Mathews,...

Scope and Contents The undated items for 1954 include the following reports and memoranda by H.L. Mitchell: "A Joint Organizing Program among agricultural field and processing workers in Southern California"; "A New Program for Unionizing Agricultural Workers"; "A Program to Organize Rice Industry in Louisiana"; "A Joint Organizing Campaign in Agriculture"; "AFL Assistance in Organizing Agricultural Workers, 1946-1954"; "A Report on the Sugar Cane Plantation Workers' Strike in Louisiana, USA, 1953". There is...

Scope and Contents The Supreme Court of Louisiana handed down a decision in the Godchaux Sugars injunction case, which grew out of the 1953 NAWU sugar strike; the papers include a copy of the court decision (Jan. 13) and two letters from lawyer Daniel H. Pollitt to Paul Barker on appealing the case to the US Supreme Court (Jan 19; Feb 9). There are two particularly interesting exchanges of correspondence between Galarza and Mitchell, one on the conflict with the UPWA in California and Louisiana (Feb 2, 4) and...

Scope and Contents The forthcoming AFL-CIO merger was very much on the minds of the NAWU leadership; see the memorandum by Galarza on this subject (March 10), a set of notes on a conversation with AFL Secretary-Treasurer William F. Schnitzler on the NAWU's problems (March 24), and a petition from the NAWU Executives Board to the AFL asking for a clarification of the union's status under the merger (April 3). There are three letters from Daniel Pollitt on the difficulties of appealing the Godchaux Sugars case...

Scope and Contents The papers for May contain four important reports by Ernesto Galarza on: a special meeting of the "Bishop's Committee on Spanish Speaking" in Corpus Christi, Texas (4); the raiding operations of UPWA in California and Louisiana (4); the present status of the "wetback" problem (9), and on the organization of sugar and pineapple workers in Hawaii (28). Mitchell attempted to raise funds for a campaign to organize the rice industry in Louisiana, see his memorandum on this subject (May 19) and...